Baugé set to appeal to CAS
Lawyer's decries UCI's "unilateral" decision
Grégory Baugé’s lawyer has written to the UCI to appeal for the return of his client’s 2011 world titles, which were stripped from him on Friday due to anti-doping violations. According to Jim Michel-Gabriel, the UCI should have brought the matter before the Court of Arbitration for Sport rather than “unilaterally” divesting him of his rainbow jerseys.
In November, Baugé was handed a one-year suspension by the French Cycling Federation (FFC), backdated to December 23, 2010, for one missed doping control and two violations “regarding rider availability.”
On Friday, the UCI announced that in light of the FFC suspension, all results obtained by Baugé in that period would be declared null and void. Baugé has been stripped of the individual sprint world title he won in Apeldoorn last March, while he and French teammates have also lost their team sprint title.
“My client cannot accept the unilateral amendment of the results of events,” Michel-Gabriel wrote in a letter to the UCI, according to AFP.
Michel-Gabriel contends that the UCI should have sought arbitration from CAS on the matter rather than moving to nullify Baugé’s results. According to Michel-Gabriel, Baugé titles “should not be taken from him by way of a registered letter.”
Baugé is set to appeal the matter to CAS. The Frenchman, whose suspension expired on December 22, and he is currently training at the INSEP track on the outskirts of Paris.
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